Vol. 1: Die Frühzeit (The Early Period)[edit]

• Deschner, Karlheinz (1986). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.1, Die Frühzeit. Von den Ursprüngen im Alten Testament bis zum Tod des heiligen Augustinus (430). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. ISBN 3-498-01263-0.
• English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 1. The Early Period. From Old Testament origins to the death of Saint Augustine (430).

This first volume was published after 16 years of preparatory work. It illustrates the genesis of Christianity and its ascension to the Roman state religion.

It starts with a look into the Old Testament. Deschner describes the land seizure of the Israelites after the crumbling Egyptian power in Palestine in the 14th and 13th century B.C.E. and the destruction of the Canaan city-state system. This beginning, which does not directly concern Christianity, but ancient Judaism, demonstrates the relation between religious rhetoric and violent political reality: This is where Deschner sees the origin of a tradition of holy wars, following which Christians later commit numerous mass murders in the name of Israel's God, too. He describes the many death penalties the Torah stipulates for religious offences, King David's policy of conquest, the ruling and corruption of the priests, and finally the decline of the state of Israel in Roman times.

Only this decline made the ascension of Christianity in the Roman empire possible, because Christians could see themselves as the true Israel of God. Christian Anti-Judaism begins with the New Testament (see Antisemitism and the New Testament) and continues with the Church being interpreted as new Israel. Based on selected quotations, Deschner demonstrates the antisemitism of the Doctors of the Church Ephrem, John Chrysostom, Jerome and Hilary of Poitiers.

Likewise, the Church Fathers - according to Deschner - agitated against heretics and misbelievers. Deschner defends only Origen, whom he numbers among the most noble Christians at all. One whole chapter is dedicated to the attacks against paganism. He then analyses the persecution of Christians in the mirror of partially exaggerating martyr legends from Christian historiography as well as the retrospective Christian view of pagan emperors. Furthermore, Deschner looks at the first significant adversaries of Christianity, Celsus and Porphyrios.

According to Deschner, emperor Constantine I turned "the church of pacifists into a church of battlefield-shavelings". In Deschner's eyes, giving up the central pacifist values of pre-Constantine Christianity means "a bankruptcy of Jesus' teachings". Furthermore, Deschner describes Constantine's actions in the battle against Jews, "heretics" and Pagans. He also does not spare the kingdom of Armenia, the first state in the world to make Christianity a state religion (in 301), by asserting that "this immediately began with massive persecution of Pagans".

About emperor Julian Deschner writes that he "towers over his Christian antecessors in all aspects: in character, ethical and intellectual.". Julian's attempt to re-legitimate Pagan religions is commented as follows:

Vielleicht, wer weiß, wäre eine nichtchristliche Welt in genauso viele Kriege gestürzt – obwohl die nichtchristliche Welt seit siebzehn Jahrhunderten weniger Kriege führt als die christliche! Schwer vorstellbar aber in einer heidnischen Welt: die ganze Heuchelei der christlichen. Und noch schwerer denkbar deren religiöse Intoleranz.

— Kriminalgeschichte Bd. 1, S. 317 und passim

English translation: Maybe, who knows, a non-Christian world would have tumbled into as many wars – though, during the last 17 centuries, the non-Christian world fought fewer wars than the Christian! But it is very hard to imagine in a Pagan world: all the hypocrisy of the Christians. And even less thinkable is their religious intolerance.

The volume closes with an evaluation of the Church Fathers Athanasius, Ambrose and Augustine. Deschner accuses Athanasius of "unscrupulousness" as well as "striving for prestige and power". Ambrose is in Deschner's words a "fanatic antisemite". Thanks to his church policies, "adamant and intolerant, but not so direct; versed, smoother", he set an "example for the Church until today" (page 400 and passim). And finally, Augustine, who positioned "patriotism above the love of a father for his son" (page 520) and sanctioned "just war" as well as "holy war".